quote:Originally posted by dom:Some are speculating that the lid on the rover (does it have one like Lunokhod?) might not have closed properly.

The two solar panels fold in to form a lid over the stowed high-gain antenna and camera mast. It is not clear from Chinese media reports if the mast was able to be stowed or if one or both of the solar panels failed to fold down — or whether it was some other problem.

domMember

Posts: 663From: Registered: Aug 2001

posted 01-27-2014 01:13 PM
So we basically don't know what the problem is! Realistically, it's got to be something to do with the lid not closing and a long lunar 'winter night' looming

Official news: Yutu is still alive. Mission control is busy working on it. Please give them more time.

Robert PearlmanEditor

Posts: 35159From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 02-12-2014 08:34 PM
The rumors of Yutu's death were indeed premature... from Xinhua:

China's moon rover Yutu has waken up from a troubled dormancy although experts are still trying to figure out the cause of its abnormality, a spokesman with the country's lunar probe program said on Thursday.

"Yutu has come back to life!" said Pei Zhaoyu, the spokesperson.

Pei said the moon rover, named after the pet of a lunar goddess in ancient Chinese mythology, has now been restored to its normal signal reception function. But experts are still working to verify the causes of its mechanical control abnormality.

GlintMember

Posts: 915From: New Windsor, Maryland USARegistered: Jan 2004

posted 02-14-2014 01:56 PM
It might be alive, but what kind of life is it living? Has it moved at all or is it paralyzed?

GlintMember

Posts: 915From: New Windsor, Maryland USARegistered: Jan 2004

posted 07-24-2014 10:44 AM
"The Chinese lunar rover likely became crippled after hitting a rock," wrote the South China Morning Post.

Jokes about Asian drivers aside, the latest scapegoating for the malfunctioning Yutu's failure to budge on the lunar surface is now said to be some kind of bump or rock that somehow got in the way and collided with Yutu as the latter was wheeling around with glee. Seems as though someone should have seen the stationary obstacle in the images and prevented Yutu from smashing into or become high-centered from rolling over it. After all, the image quality was quite good and very sharp.

Its handlers are also trying to shift blame away from themselves and to mysterious "foreign researchers" they relied on and who had underestimated the density of surface rocks. It's not the driver's fault.

At least they're looking at the "cup half full" side, while glossing over the mission failure:

"It was designed to roam the moon for three months to survey its geological structure and surface substances and look for natural resources. But Yutu has managed to survive seven lunar nights so far."

How many months did it roam the moon, again?

I might point out, this CYA spectacle comes against the backdrop of the anniversary of the first manned lunar landing and safe return, 45 years earlier.

Robert PearlmanEditor

Posts: 35159From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 07-24-2014 11:06 AM

quote:Originally posted by Glint:It's not the driver's fault.

I may be mistaken, but my impression from earlier news reports was that Yutu's movements were autonomous. It was not driven from Earth, but plotted its own path based on its onboard sensors.

In any case, I didn't read this update as scapegoating, but trying to understand what happened to the rover. It's unfortunate that Yutu lost its mobility, but that's not reason alone for derision.

quote:Originally posted by Glint:How many months did it roam the moon, again?

Yutu roved the moon from Dec. 14 through Dec. 25, then again from Jan. 11 through Jan. 25, when it encountered mechanical programs at the end of its second lunar day. Under its nominal design mission, it would have driven one more lunar day before ending its mission.

GlintMember

Posts: 915From: New Windsor, Maryland USARegistered: Jan 2004

posted 07-24-2014 11:39 AM

quote:Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:I may be mistaken, but my impression from earlier news reports was that Yutu's movements were autonomous.

If the controlling government was more open, perhaps we would have more knowledge of how this thing works. But given that its original mission was to cover a several square km area, it seems that would be difficult to do in a completely autonomous manner. The on-board stereo camera would be essential in either case.

The Mars rovers are largely autonomous due to the light travel time. But imagery (especially stereo) is used to plan the course in order to avoid hazards and target new sites.

Then there was the whole landing fiasco where it was targeted for one area but its landing was off by at least one Mare.

Another aspect to it is the question of whether or not the rock reason is more or less plausible than the lid not fitting right tighty in the nighty. Could we be seeing the blame being shifted from the hardware team (mechanical failure) to the operations team (ran into a rock)?

There are a lot of questions, but the press doesn't seem to be doing it's job -- pressing.

HeadshotMember

Posts: 585From: Streamwood, IL USARegistered: Feb 2012

posted 09-04-2014 05:13 PM
Does anyone know what is the current status of this mission?

Is the lander functioning? Is it sending back any images or scientific data?

While I understand that the rover Yutu is crippled, is it sending back any useful data or images?

Robert PearlmanEditor

Posts: 35159From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 09-06-2014 09:52 AM
CCTV released this update today:

According to the video, though still static, the Yutu rover is continuing to send back images.

Robert PearlmanEditor

Posts: 35159From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 01-01-2015 11:33 PM
China’s Chang'e-3 lunar lander remains operational, in evidence by a newly distributed image taken by the spacecraft from the moon's surface, journalist Leonard David reports.

According to the informative Lunar Enterprise Daily, the Chinese lander made the first observation of a galaxy from its landing site: M101 Spiral.

The lander's Lunar Ultraviolet Telescope (LUT) made the observation on December 2.

Robert PearlmanEditor

Posts: 35159From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 12-23-2015 09:08 AM
China's Chang'e 3 Yutu rover has found evidence of a new type of basaltic rock in one of the dark basins on the moon, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, focus on a geologically young region of the moon's surface – and shed fresh light on the evolution of our nearest neighbor.

"We recognize a new type of lunar basalt with a distinctive mineral assemblage compared with the samples from Apollo and Luna, and the lunar meteorites," the study authors wrote...

"Results indicate that this region's composition differs from other mare sample-return sites and is a new type of mare basalt not previously sampled, but consistent with remote sensing," the authors wrote.

And in the rock material examined in this spot – an area that's roughly 3 billion years old – the researchers discovered a surprising mix of chemical abundances, relatively rich in titanium dioxide and yet also in the mineral olivine (a magnesium iron silicate). In all likelihood, the basaltic rocks probably developed late in the history of the magma ocean that seeded them.

"The chemical and mineralogical information of the CE-3 landing site provides new ground truth for some of the youngest volcanism on the moon," the study authors wrote.

The website is a little bit difficult to use, but last week I managed to download all of the data from two of the cameras -- a total of 35 Gigabytes of data! -- and I've spent the subsequent week figuring out what's there and how to handle it.

So, space fans, without further ado, here, for the first time in a format easily accessible to the public, are hundreds and hundreds of science-quality images from the Chang'e 3 lander and Yutu rover.